Mother's day 23 HS
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Good morning One River,
Thank you for joining us everyone in person and online. Today is Mother’s Day and we’ve been working our way through a series on the Holy Spirit on our way to Pentecost. Mother’s Day holds a unique and special place in the life of the Vineyard Movement, and we’ll get to that here in a little bit. When I think of Mothers and Mother’s Day I think of my own experience with my earthly mother. I think of borderline unconditional love. I know this is unfortunately not everyone’s experience with their mothers. But mothers are supposed to be our first earthly encounter with love. They are the first people we meet when thrust into this world. For those of you that may have had different experiences, I hope you will come to see that that was not God’s plan for the family dynamic for you. Your parents are here to love you and guide you, and there’s biblical president for this in the form of the Holy Spirit.
I started this message as I often do with a little research about the holiday.
Mother’s Day is a holiday I find fascinating, for several reasons. Mother’s Day is not a uniquely American Holiday. In fact, it’s origins day back to long before America became a country. It’s not even a uniquely Christian holiday. However, the Church of the Middle Ages adopted a version of it celebrated in Europe. It became known as Mothering Sunday.
Mothering Sunday was traditionally the fourth Sunday of Lent and children, usually girls or young women that had taken a job as a domestic servant in someone else’s estate, were given the day off to meet with their mother’s and any other family they had as well. The church would hold a special service in honor of the day.
It was a time of celebration and feasting. It was a family holiday and a spiritual one.
The American Church, being largely non-Catholic forgot about Mothering Sunday. It would be several hundred more years before the idea rolled around again and this time in a much different way.
In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs" to teach local women how to properly care for their children.
These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2.
The official Mother’s Day holiday arose in the 1900s as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis.Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
In May of 1908 she paired up with a Methodist preacher and retail chain store owner to sponsor the event. It was by all measures a colossal success. Anna Jarvis intended Mother’s Day to be a quasi-sacred event. A family holiday in celebration of one’s Mother, with time spent together with each other and in worship of the LORD.
By 1912 many states, towns and churches adopted Mother’s Day and with Jarvis’ help, by 1914 President Wilson signed into effect a bill establishing the seconds Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
So let’s jump tracks for a minute here. I want to ask a question and see if we can work our way through it. What’s a Mother? I know this sounds dangerously close to the current political question of “What is a woman?” Believe me, that’s not where I’m trying to go here. What do we think a mother is? What does the bible use to describe that term?
The first reference in scripture we have for mother is in Genesis 3:20 -20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Eve was named such, because she became the mother of all humanity. This was the original design by God. Which carried down the ages until the birth of our LORD. Luke tells us one of the few stories of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus.
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
I know for many of us in this church, and maybe online, the path to motherhood may have come in an unorthodox, perhaps even non-biological path. Many of us have children as a result of prophetic events, fostered by the Holy Spirit. I would invite you to be encouraged by this story of Jesus in utero. Jesus was not conceived in the traditional manner. Yet he still came to be, and we see in the gospels how incredibly important Mary, his mother, was to him. To the point where amongst his last orders was to provide care for her at the point of his crucifixion.
The actor here in this story is the Holy Spirit. We’ve talked a lot these last few weeks about the Holy Spirit. We’ve talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. We’ve looked at some of the gifts of the Spirit.
We’ve even talked about some of the when, how, and why of the Spirit’s workings. I have always found it interesting that the Spirit can take on so many roles in our lives. He’s the active force in the church’s body. I want to look briefly at a less conventional list.
If we look at the history of the Christian movement, we need to consider what it was that happened to native peoples in foreign lands that convinced them the Jesus Christ was LORD. If we look at historical Saints like St Patrick in Ireland or Saint Boniface in Germany, what was it that first grabbed the people’s attention.
Many, like Moses, were not great speakers. It was the Holy Spirit, performing miracles and showing love to the people of the new land. We have many documented stories of this, from Africa to China. When the church shows up. When it really shows up, the Spirit comes with it and the people see power and signs and wonders poured out on them. Evil Spirits are forced out, the lame and sick are healed.
I’m not saying we’ve always done it right. Christianity has an unChristlike history of evangelism as well. But I would say, most of the time, much of the time. We came in love and the Spirit came with us.
This is one of the many things that separates Jesus followers from other religious evangelists. Most other religions, from their inception, evangelized by force. Some still do to this day. But Christianity, at least for the first 1000 years, evangelized only by love and the work of the Spirit. Something no other faith can claim. Truly one of the signs of the Holy Spirit is the Signs and wonders we claim at the Vineyard.
Let’s turn to the gift of Joy! Joy is the principal flag of the Holy Spirit!
Prince Charles was just crowned King Charles III and at Buckingham palace they fly “the Standard” over the palace to tell everyone that the King is there. Joy is that flag for those that are filled with the Holy Spirit.
I’m choosing my words carefully here, because I have met many people who say they love the LORD, and who am I to judge? But when I watch them, I do not see the joy of the Spirit. I think sometimes we get caught up in the day-to-day of life and it can feel crushing. The first fruit of the Spirit is joy. You know when you meet someone with that deep seated joy of the Spirit, it’s radiant. It’s contagious. When you leave meeting with that person, you leave feeling more alive. That’s the sign of the Holy Spirit. That’s Joy. That’s the standard flag of the Christian life.
Ok, Charise says that my mantra is “never kick a sacred cow when you can kick two.” I gotta say, that’s not necessarily the mission I intentionally find myself on, but I admit it does happen from time to time. I hope, truly, that it’s in furtherance of spiritual growth both in myself and in all of you. My desire to kick sacred cows comes from my study and my desire to interpret scripture correctly. To truly know Christ and his words.
In 1 Peter 3:15-16 The apostle tells us - Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
This verse can be taken a few different ways, but I think Peter is advocating here for a form of study. Study of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and study of scripture.
When you meet someone new, and you find out you truly like them. I think you naturally find yourself in a position where you want to learn everything you can about them. We intrinsically have a call to study them.
I think of Ester when she comes home from school and she’s made a new friend, which is almost daily, bless her heart. I say something like, “that’s great, what do you like about them.” And she is immediately able to tell me that her friend has blue hair and a dog named freckles and her favorite food is pudding. She like soccer and reading books about superheroes.
That’s what Peter is saying here. Be prepared to give an answer about your love for Jesus. Why do you love him? For some of us that takes on the form of things like apologetics. This tends to be the galvanizing verse for Apologists. And that’s fine. But I think what he’s saying here is “be ready to tell people what you love about Jesus.” For me, that comes in scholastic study and scriptural reading. We are in our day limited in hands-on formats for learning factual information about God, Jesus and the Spirit. But through the Spirit we can also explore the emotional connection to God.
Part of this pours out of that joy that we spoke about. Why are you so different? What is it about you that sticks out in this world? Well, that’s the Holy Spirit. It comes from Jesus, and I love him. Let me tell you why and what I know about him.
I would name a gift of the Spirit as emotional and intellectual curiosity about him. We want to know our faith and know it deeply. That’s a sign of the Spirit.
I want to finish with one last gift of the Spirit, this one may be a little more agreed upon.
John 14:15-21
Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, sent to us by the Father and the Son. It’s the animating principle of the Church. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love!
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that we might be gathered into the love that God is. The Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. The love into which we have been invited.
This is the most important gift of the spirit. Paul tells us there are three things that last throughout time: faith, hope and love.But the greatest of these is love.
But what is love? Love is willing the good of the other.
Boiled down, this is the essence of love, to will the good of the other. We talk about this today to continue on our mission to explore the Holy Spirit, but also because in its purest form, that is a mother.
Like with everything in our human experience, results may vary, but a mother is the very definition of willing the good of the other.
They are the walking embodiment of self-sacrifice for the purpose of willing the betterment of their children. Mothering when done right is a gift from the Spirit. Only with the proper guidance of the Holy Spirit can we love in a truly selfless manner.
I want to close today by praying for and blessing all the mothers both here and online.
Good and Gentle God,
we pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women of theory who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life. You who became human through a woman, grant to all mothers the courage they need to face the uncertain future that life with children always brings.
Give them the strength to live and to be loved in return, not perfectly, but humanly.
Give them the faithful support of husband, family and friends as they care for the physical and spiritual growth of their children.
Give them joy and delight in their children to sustain them through the trials of motherhood. Most of all, give them the wisdom to turn to you for help when they need it most.
May the blessing of the Divine
Be an especially bright benediction
Upon mothers everywhere
On your blessed day -
On Mother's Day!